Decision on 2010 school calendar mid-November

Results of survey on proposed closures now available online

The Howe Sound School Board will decide Nov.14 whether to adopt
a proposed school calendar that would see Whistler schools closed for the
Olympic Games.

There will be two meetings before then for education
stakeholders, including parent representatives, to ask questions and give
feedback.

“What I have to say to parents is that we are not going to have
a couple of years to give (the board) input,” said Cathy Jewett the chair of
the District Parents Advisory Council.

“They are asking for it now and we have to give it now.”

However, she said, parents want to make it clear to the board
that the 2009-10 calendar proposal is not set in stone.

“So I would say we will agree on this subject to change,” said
Jewett.

“It is not the final version and certainly that has been the
mantra from (School Board Superintendent) Dr. Rick Erickson.

The proposal would see spring break moved from March to Feb. 22-26
to coincide with the last week of the Games. As well, Whistler’s elementary
schools and the secondary schools in Pemberton and Squamish would be closed
from Feb.15 to 19, the first week of the Olympics. Whistler’s secondary school
would be closed for an additional week starting Feb. 8.

The board has also released the results of the survey, which
included the option of closing schools during the Games.

About 32 per cent of those who responded in Whistler said they
felt the schools should stay open. Approximately 26 per cent said they neither
agreed nor disagreed on keeping kids in the classroom during the Games. About
40 per cent disagreed or strongly disagreed that classroom learning is so
important that regular classes should be maintained throughout the period of
the Olympics.

Meanwhile the school district has also put forward a proposal
to change its name from the Howe Sound School District to the Sea to Sky School
District.

“The original name has been in place since 1946 when the
centres of population were Woodfibre, Squamish and Britannia Beach,” said board
chair Dave Walden.

“So that just shows how the centres of population have
shifted.”

Walden also said Howe Sound is not a well-known place within
the province.

“There are good things happening in Howe Sound and we would
like people to know that they are happening in Squamish, Whistler and Pemberton
and the Sea to Sky is something people would recognize,” he said.

The proposal has gone out to educational and community partners
for their input. Once that feedback has been given then the proposal will go to
the Ministry of Education to seek the change.

Meanwhile
the number of students
attending school in the district has not changed over the past five years.
According to information reported to the Ministry of Education on Sunday, Sept.
30, the overall average class size in the area for 2002 was 21.9 students
compared to 22.2 students last year.

“We seem to have fairly stable
numbers in the current school year in Whistler and Pemberton. And our numbers
in Squamish, which have been declining over the past number of years, are
increasing,” said district superintendent Erickson, adding that the Sea to Sky
corridor has one of the youngest demographic populations in British Columbia.

The number of international secondary
students in the area has also not changed this year. However, Erickson said the
number of international kids enrolled at the elementary French program has
dropped from 100 last year to 12 this year because of the lack of affordable
housing in the area.

“The one agent that we dealt with had
other programs… where he was able to have a residential component for them,” he
said.